Food bank takeover

food bank

NORTH BAY – Unless a coming together happens ahead of a looming legal battle, a judge may have to decide when an annual general meeting is an annual general meeting.
A host of questions are hanging in the air after a surprise news release from North Bay mayor Al McDonald’s office on Thursday, March 8, announcing his support of the North Bay Food Bank’s new board at, “its Annual General Meeting on Tuesday, March 6.” The release states 50 members attended to show their support.
However, the man who was chair of the board prior to the meeting and who still claims to be in the position says he wasn’t even aware the meeting was being held.
“I don’t agree that they are the board,” said Joe Tranter, who took the chair position last October after the resignation of Dick Dinnes. “They held a meeting last week calling it an AGM. It wasn’t an AGM. I did not know they were having that meeting, that’s for sure.”
Also claiming to be in the dark about the AGM is the now-former executive director Ellen White. She says she was terminated from her position on Wednesday, the day after the meeting.
“When they said, ‘We’ve had an AGM and you’ve been removed,’ I was floored. I thought, ‘What AGM?’” said White.
White says that while working with volunteers at the food bank on Hammond Street, three men entered the premises telling her to sign a piece of paper, hand over her keys and pass codes, and leave. She says she did not sign the paper, but did leave after a small scene in front of what she estimates were 15 to 20 volunteers working there at the time.
White says she didn’t recognize two of the men, but says Ted Hargreaves, listed as a member of the new board in McDonald’s press release, was the third. Hargreaves is credited in one of his many online biographies as being a co-founder of the North Bay Food Bank and currently serves as chair of the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission. Calls to his home were not returned before press time.
According to the Ontario Association of Food Banks, White has been replaced by Amber Livingstone. A member relations coordinator with the association said, “They have been keeping us in the loop that they elected a new board last week.”
She added that she has been speaking with Livingstone and suggested media call Livingstone, “so she can direct you to their lawyer.”
Calls to the North Bay Food Bank and their reported lawyer, Michael Birnie, were not returned before press time.
The sudden moves at the Food Bank come as the newly formed board under Tranter was in the midst of conducting a forensic audit of the Food Bank’s accounts. The board had retained Toronto-based lawyer and former North Bay resident Jonathane Ricci to manage the audit. He is now representing Tranter and White and their supporters to regain control of the food bank.
He says the audit began in the last week of February through the accounting firm Al Rosen and Associates, a firm that specializes in forensic accounting.
Tranter says he and other now-former board members had questions about the finances of the board and decided that a forensic audit was the best way to go.
“Unfortunately it is part of doing business,” said Tranter. “As a donor to the food bank you deserve answers about where your money is.”
White said that the board’s records indicate that an audit hadn’t been done in many years and that the most current minutes, prior to Tranter assuming the chair, were from 1995.
“I have called for the entire time I was there, and I still do, that an audit be done and made public to clear the air,” said White.
Tranter said it was his intention once the audit was complete to call an AGM to present the findings and move forward.
“Audits are done all the time. It doesn’t mean that anything is wrong,” said Tranter.
During a tearful interview, White said she is also upset about the manner in which she was forced from the food bank, saying it made it appear as if she had done something improper.
“That’s really offensive to me that it could even appear like that,” said White. “…I didn’t even have signing authority on the bank account.”
At the same time, she says she has been flooded with calls, letters and emails encouraging her and praising her efforts to feed hungry families in North Bay.
“The community support has been absolutely amazing. There has been so much goodwill sent my way,” said White.
Just when answers to the governance of the food bank will be forthcoming appears to be up in the air.
Ricci said that he is exchanging emails with Birnie, but has yet to see all of the necessary pieces of information he has requested. Asked whether money donated to the food bank could end up going to legal fees rather than groceries, he said, “My preference is for it to go to stocking shelves, but you have to understand that an organization like the North Bay Food Bank has responsibilities to the people of North Bay and to the Canada Revenue Agency… I understand that the last place that people want a dollar to go to is a lawyer or an accountant.”
On the Canada Revenue Agency’s charitable listing, the last financial statement for the year 2010 showed the food bank, under the listing North Bay Soup Kitchen Inc. had a bank balance of $134,000 at the end of that year with long-term investments of more than $310,000. Revenues in 2010 were reported at $213,000 with expenditures of $142,000.
The North Bay Food Bank is a completely separate organization from the Gathering Place soup kitchen on Algonquin Avenue.
Story by Rob Learn rlearn@metrolandnorthmedia.com